Greetings friends and family of Beach Crew, it has been a long winter of training for the Beach Crew, and spring season is upon us!

The first official regatta of the season occurred on March 3rd at the USC Boathouse in San Pedro, California. The regatta featured four heats: an Open 8, a Novice 8, an Open 4, and a Novice 4 event. The day also featured fog, rain, and sunlight, all during the regatta! San Diego State University came up to compete alongside USC and Long Beach.

For many of the Novice, this season’s Gruenberg cup was their first regatta. Beach Crew placed second in all of the heats, closing in and defeating USC in the final few hundred meters of the Open 8 event and coming very close to first place in the Open 4 heat. Overall, the regatta showcased the work that was being put in by our athletes, as well as the potential for so much more. Hearing the closeness of the opposing coxswain’s calls, feeling the rush that accompanies walking on and eventually passing the opponent’s boat, and finally going home knowing that all was given on the water is what drives rowers to spend hours training and developing their physical fitness and skill.

The last weekend (3/11/18), Beach Crew participated in another regatta, this time featured in Newport, California. Notorious for their foggy conditions, the weather was relatively fair during this year’s Newport Regatta, with light showers of rain that eventually cleared up towards the end of the final heats. The Regatta was much larger than the Gruenberg Cup, hosting many more schools. The schools that competed alongside Beach Crew were: UCLA, UCI, SDSU, UCSB, OCC, and LMU. The regatta featured multiple heats ranging from Open 4s and 8s to Pure Varsity and Novice 4/8 line-ups.

Beach Crew sent out three (3) 4s during this year’s Newport Regatta, with the results showing promise for future races. The highlight of the Newport Regatta for Beach Crew was easily the Novice 4+, who defeated the opposing boats by 14 seconds and placed first in the heat. The Varsity 4+ was ahead and in second place for a majority of the race, but lost it during the last few hundred meters. The results can be found at (https://clockcaster.com/e/16). With the Newport Regatta concluded, the next prize to set our eyes on is the San Diego Crew Classic Regatta, which is approaching at a rapid pace. With two weeks left to train, Beach Crew will compete at the Crew Classic on March 24th, 2018. A special thanks to OCC for hosting the event and having the Beach Crew and to the friends and family of Beach Crew for their continuing support. We’ll see everyone in San Diego, Row Beach!